Association of Asynchronous Virtual Scribe Services: Patient Experience in Primary Care

Area of Science:

• Healthcare technology
• Clinical informatics
• Patient experience research

Background:

• Virtual scribe services are increasingly used to reduce clinician documentation burden and burnout.
• While their impact on clinician wellness is known, effects on patient experience are less studied.
• This study investigated the hypothesis that virtual scribes enhance patient satisfaction through improved clinician face-to-face interaction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of asynchronous virtual scribe services on patient satisfaction metrics.
• To determine if virtual scribe utilization influences overall rating of care, likelihood to recommend, clinician listening, and trust.
• To assess the relationship between reduced documentation burden and patient-reported outcomes.

Main Methods:

• A pre-post design was used to analyze patient satisfaction data from 81 primary care clinicians.
• Data were collected from 81 primary care clinicians across two vendor programs in a large health network.
• Patient satisfaction was measured using four vendor-administered questions before and after scribe implementation (3-9 months).

Main Results:

• Statistically significant improvements were observed in the overall rating of the visit (P < .001) and patient trust (P = .012).
• Positive trends, though not statistically significant, were noted for likelihood to recommend and clinician listening.
• The study indicates a positive association between virtual scribe use and key patient satisfaction indicators.

Conclusions:

• Virtual scribe implementation led to significant improvements in patients' overall experience and trust in their clinicians.
• These findings suggest that reducing documentation burden can strengthen the patient-clinician relationship.
• The study provides additional evidence supporting investment in scribe services for enhancing both clinician well-being and patient care quality.